Christie on “Bridgegate”: I knew nothing. Have I mentioned I knew nothing?

posted at 6:11 pm on January 8, 2014 by Allahpundit

Obama said the same thing about the IRS targeting tea partiers, of course. To which conservatives replied: That’s no excuse. Even if he didn’t order the targeting, bad behavior coordinated by multiple subordinates typically doesn’t happen unless they have reason to believe it’ll be tolerated up the chain. Usually, when they play dirty, they’re taking some sort of cue from their boss to do so, whether in broad ideological terms or direct marching orders. Does the same reasoning apply to Team Christie?

His defense, I take it, will be that it would have been madness for a sitting governor running for reelection to greenlight a tactic this petty when he was on his way to a landslide. It could only hurt him. (Of course, the same was true for Nixon and Watergate.) But that’s also the case for the staffers who ordered the bridge lanes closed — it could only hurt their boss to do so, and yet, for some unknown reason, they felt compelled to. Would they have dared to take a risk that huge without his approval, tacit or not?

Gov. Chris Christie has responded Wednesday afternoon to email exchanges made public earlier in the day linking a top aide to the George Washington Bridge lane closure scandal that’s been under investigation.

“What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable. I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions,” the governor said in a statement.

And so, as predicted, we’ll be moving next to the “Kelly resigns” phase of the scandal followed by the media feeding frenzy over whether Christie himself had a role in the lane closings. I thought it’d be over in a week, but Jersey Democrats are crowing about laws having been broken and Jersey papers are now running stories like this:

Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations – including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious – due to traffic gridlock caused by unannounced closures of access lanes to the George Washington Bridge, according to the head of the borough’s EMS department.

The woman later died, borough records show…

Although he did not say her death was directly caused by the delays, [EMS coordinator Paul] Favia noted that “paramedics were delayed due to heavy traffic on Fort Lee Road and had to meet the ambulance en-route to the hospital instead of on the scene.”

Joshua Green thinks the scandal’s a big deal because it damages Christie’s image as a “nice jerk” who fights for the little guy. That’s basically right, even though I doubt it’ll have legs if it can’t be proved that he endorsed the lane closings himself. The question with Christie is figuring out where his abrasiveness springs from. Is it from righteous indignation at how public-employee unions loot taxpayers or does he just get off on pushing people around? The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but the more evidence there is of the latter, the better Scott Walker looks as a righteously indignant yet mercifully soft-spoken alternative. A lot of undecided “somewhat conservative” voters in 2016 will be measuring how much good they expect President Christie to do against how aggravating, and exhausting, it would be to put up with him day after day for four years. This adds some weight to that second arm of the scale.

Update: Good point:

@allahpundit so the right will pass on Christie over traffic, but take Walker who is being investigated for campaign violations?

New Jersey, US
51m
—
Democratic National Committee on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s response to the bridge scandal: ‘Chris Christie’s statement tonight neither takes responsibility nor answers many of the central questions that were raised with this morning’s revelations’ – @NBCNews

Emergency responders were delayed in attending to four medical situations – including one in which a 91-year-old woman lay unconscious

And later died. Was fat boy’s staff laughing about that too?

It’s fine that fat boy is taking the Sgt. Schutlz plea but that only means he is oblivious about what is going on in his own administration. Not exactly the credentials you want if you have Presidential aspirations.

Democratic National Committee on New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s response to the bridge scandal: ‘Chris Christie’s statement tonight neither takes responsibility nor answers many of the central questions that were raised with this morning’s revelations’ – @NBCNews

canopfor on January 8, 2014 at 6:18 PM

Why it as almost as if the DNC has abandoned him as their favorite opponent in 2016! But despite their motives they are spot on in their criticism.

—”They are the children of (Democratic candidate for governor Barbara) Buono voters.”

—”Bottom line is he didn’t say safety.”

___

Sept. 13. Wildstein email to Kelly, apparently after a Port Authority executive from New York discovered the lane closures and halted them: “The New York side gave Fort Lee back all three lanes this morning. We are appropriately going nuts. (Port Authority chairman David) Samson helping us to retaliate.”

—Kelly: “What?”

—Wildstein: “Yes, unreal. Fixed now.”

___

Sept. 17. Sokolich to Baroni: “We should talk. Someone needs to tell me that the recent traffic debacle was not punitive in nature. The last four reporters that contacted me suggest that the people they are speaking with absolutely believe it to be punishment. Try as I may to dispel these rumors I am having a tough time.

“A private face-to-face would be important to me. Perhaps someone can enlighten me as to the errors of my ways. Let me know if you’ll give me 10 minutes.”

This guy acts like a bully day after day (much like Obama), and his staff decides to bully a political opponent. Who would have thunk it?

This differs from the IRS scandal only in scope. I expect the same people that want investigations into how far up the chain the IRS scandal goes will want the same treatment for this. Don’t be hypocrites, people.

This governance by intimidation and coercion is the sort that makes people less likely to engage the political process, and an engaged public is what conservatism needs.

Chris Christie does not have the character to be a presidential candidate that I would vote for. I will never vote for that man.

This notion that senior administration aides run around cooking up things to do in the name of a President or Governor without anyone having the slightest idea what’s happening is new to politics in my experience. And anyone buying that whopper might want to put in a bid to actually buy the GW Bridge.

I don’t think the lane closures themselves are problematic. Christie had commented that he was surprised Ft. Lee had three dedicated lanes. That is good for Ft. Lee, but sucks for the rest of the State. Experimenting to see if traffic flow overall would be better by restricting the lanes allocated to Ft. Lee is legitimate, even if it turns out not to have been a good idea after all.

The only embarrassing thing is the glee shown by the aides at the inconvenience caused by the experiment, but that is not the same as bad behavior and abuse of power, just unfortunate sense of humor when exposed publicly.

I still have not seen any evidence that the initial decision to divert the lanes was intended to inconvenience commuters rather than legitimately evaluate traffic flow.

If you think he’s done……BWAHAHAHA!!
terryannonline on January 8, 2014 at 6:29 PM

Stick a fork in that pro-amnesty FRAUD Marco Rubio. The bloom is long gone on that turd. Sorry if you never got the memo. You might live in fantasyland, but in the real world Rubio isn’t the thought of as the rising star he once was.

Stick a fork in that pro-amnesty FRAUD Marco Rubio. The bloom is long gone on that turd. Sorry if you never got the memo. You might live in fantasyland, but in the real world Rubio isn’t the thought of as the rising star he once was.

Jesus Christ, HotAir! Using the access of high political office to punish citizens who disagree with you is NOT a small issue. It’s a freaking huge deal, the WORST kind of corruption there is. It shuts down dissent completely. It ruins people’s lives. It emboldens others. And it is an absolute GATEWAY to corrosive rot from top to bottom in an administration. It is straight-up fascism. What the HELL is wrong with this place?!!!

Looks like the FatMan is getting set to run. He has Obama’s favorite line down pat.

I can hardly wait for M.J. Brutus, KingGold, Crosspatch, Buy Danish and the other members of the HA RINO Brigade telling how Christie is the only “electable Republican” (just as Romney and McCain were).

Too bad CRISTie went out of his way to stick it to conservatives and Tea Partiers all this time. Now none of us will come to his defense during this mess. And rest assured neither will the Democrat/media complex.

In 6 months, Chris Christie will no longer be fat. But he will still be a bully. He will still be a liberal. He will still be untrustworthy. And he will still be incompetent when it comes to creating jobs.

In 6 months, Chris Christie will no longer be fat. But he will still be a bully. He will still be a liberal. He will still be untrustworthy. And he will still be incompetent when it comes to creating jobs.

Think about how ridiculous it is for Christie to claim he’s just hearing about this for the first time today.

-Two Christie appointees, one a childhood friend, have resigned.

-The administration was ordered by a court of law to turn over emails. Those emails were heavily redacted. Obviously, someone from the administration, along with an attorney, read them before turning them over. Wouldn’t it make sense to warn fatso of what was contained in the emails? C’mon.

-Chris Christie is a former federal prosecutor, and presumably no dummy. No internal investigation ordered, despite having the emails, the resignations, etc.?

How stupid does he think we are?

I can assure you we haven’t heard the end of this one. Not by a long shot.

Experimenting to see if traffic flow overall would be better by restricting the lanes allocated to Ft. Lee is legitimate, even if it turns out not to have been a good idea after all. tommylotto on January 8, 2014 at 6:32 PM

So Christie was “experimenting”? What’s your source, because so far he’s denying knowing anything about it and blaming underlings.

“What I’ve seen today for the first time is unacceptable. I am outraged and deeply saddened to learn that not only was I misled by a member of my staff, but this completely inappropriate and unsanctioned conduct was made without my knowledge. One thing is clear: this type of behavior is unacceptable and I will not tolerate it because the people of New Jersey deserve better. This behavior is not representative of me or my Administration in any way, and people will be held responsible for their actions,” the governor said in a statement.

…big belly sounds like big ears!………here’s what fatso would say if he heard that excuse……………”What a big bag… full of shit!”

How delicious that the New Jersey democrat media thinks they’re peeling off a candidate who was a threat to Killery’s coronation — only to have them learn down the road what a favor they’ve done for the GOP. There isn’t a conservative in this country who would have voted for this pig. They’ve done us a huge favor here. We don’t have to hate him cuz he’s a RINO (and all the intra-party ugliness that comes with that); we can hate him cuz he’s corrupt. Everyone can agree on that!

Jesus Christ, HotAir! Using the access of high political office to punish citizens who disagree with you is NOT a small issue. It’s a freaking huge deal, the WORST kind of corruption there is. It shuts down dissent completely. It ruins people’s lives. It emboldens others. And it is an absolute GATEWAY to corrosive rot from top to bottom in an administration. It is straight-up fascism. What the HELL is wrong with this place?!!!

Rational Thought on January 8, 2014 at 6:42 PM

If you understood what Jesus did for you, you wouldn’t use His Name as an explicative.

Jesus Christ, HotAir! Using the access of high political office to punish citizens who disagree with you is NOT a small issue. It’s a freaking huge deal, the WORST kind of corruption there is. It shuts down dissent completely. It ruins people’s lives. It emboldens others. And it is an absolute GATEWAY to corrosive rot from top to bottom in an administration. It is straight-up fascism. What the HELL is wrong with this place?!!!

Rational Thought on January 8, 2014 at 6:42 PM

It’s called terminal partisanship. As long as he’s “our fascist”, s’cool.

I think his stomach ate the lap band and the media is already circling like sharks.
He’s not ready for prime time.
That, and he wants to take your guns, give illegals amnesty and now, cheap college, and he agrees with Cuomo 98% of the time.

It saddens me to see all of these partisans try and rationalize this. I thought those that visited this site were above that. But for the most part, nope. Switch the names people to Obama, Jarrett, Holder and Carney. If the seriousness jumps a bit in your mind, then you might be too partisan to help those of us that really want better government.

Is it from righteous indignation at how public-employee unions loot taxpayers or does he just get off on pushing people around? The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but the more evidence there is of the latter, the better Scott Walker looks as a righteously indignant yet mercifully soft-spoken alternative.

Look, if we’re going to be voting for a former prosecutor, he’s almost by definition going to be somewhat of a bully. The question is whether he’s ethical or not. Granted, recent history has given us a rather low bar to clear there, but it’s still a bar to clear nonetheless.

Jesus Christ, HotAir! Using the access of high political office to punish citizens who disagree with you is NOT a small issue. It’s a freaking huge deal, the WORST kind of corruption there is. It shuts down dissent completely. It ruins people’s lives. It emboldens others. And it is an absolute GATEWAY to corrosive rot from top to bottom in an administration. It is straight-up fascism. What the HELL is wrong with this place?!!!

Years ago I used to troll TPM. Yeah yeah I know. Anyway, someone wrote a piece that was sacrilege to liberalism and there was a revolt. Hundreds of loyal commenters abandoned the site because of it. Conservatives don’ t act like spoiled children so I wouldn’t except them to do the same here, but HA is on thin ice.

Jesus Christ, HotAir! Using the access of high political office to punish citizens who disagree with you is NOT a small issue. It’s a freaking huge deal, the WORST kind of corruption there is. It shuts down dissent completely. It ruins people’s lives. It emboldens others. And it is an absolute GATEWAY to corrosive rot from top to bottom in an administration. It is straight-up fascism. What the HELL is wrong with this place?!!!

Christie passed on his chance to run against Obama for whatever reason… well, the Tea Party won’t forget who stood down when he was needed and we ended up with Romney and Paul Ryan, budgetmaster, and an embarrassing loss to a community agitator with a huge lack of documented credentials.

Both parties are controlled by corporate fascists and are too corrupt to save. America is in desperate need of a renaissance of freedom and liberty, right now, there is no more time to waste. Please help me get Edward Snowden or a similarly proven champion of freedom and liberty elected president in ’16 on a 3rd party ticket. Let’s get it done. I don’t trust anybody in Washington DC or any of the governors anymore.

Let the MSN run with this and build to a high crescendo and have Rand Paul make a statement to the effect of: “Well I certainly find it troubling that a sitting governor used his political office to inflict petty damage on a political foe.”

Does it discredit him for consideration for higher office Senator Paul?

“Well that will be determined by the voters, but I certainly found it troubling when the current President has done it with the IRS, NSA and Media investigations, but might I add something else?”

Why yes of course.

“Thanks, I would also add that while I do find this troubling, I find even more troubling that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was allowed to stay in her post when it was clear that she was directly responsible for misleading the public, and by her lack of oversight of her department was responsible for allowing insufficient protection of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the brave souls who gave their lives in Benghazi.Not only did that discredit her for her position as SOS (as I stated at the time), it clearly discredits her from any serious talk of having the right stuff for higher office.”